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Greystone Powder
Greystone Powder is the common name for a unique substance that converts water into stone. History Early History At some point in Earth's past, apparently during the height of their technological age, the Super-Ancient Beings discovered the mysterious substance known as greystone powder, which upon contact with water would convert it on a molecular level into stone. They uncovered a few deposits of the material around the world, and used it to create the liquid stone they used to craft most of their structures. When the Super-Ancients began creating a series of trials for a later race of sentient people, they decided that the punishment for failing the Trial of the Cities would be the depletion of the Earth's water, and arranged it so that is the trial were not fulfilled, six deposit of greystone powder around the world would be opened and exposed to the oceans. The greystone powder sites that were chosen to be exposed in this event included deposits within the Three Cities of Thule, Ra and Atlas, the Underworld, the Erebus cavern and at a site located in the Mariana Trench. After the Ancients were gone, the group of humans that would become known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms were gifted with their knowledge, eventually coming across most of the locations with hidden greystone powder deposits. Over the next several thousand years, having discovered some uses for the mysterious substance, the Four Kingdoms had the greystone powder mined from the deposits within the Underworld and Erebus cavern, a task that grew easier over the ages as technology advanced. Some of the Four Kingdoms serving agencies were provided with samples of greystone powder for their own use as well, such as the Order of the Omega. A devious trap utilising greystone powder was also implemented into the Tomb of Poseidon. Towards the end of the 20th century, Yago DeSaxe was appointed the role of Governor of the Royal Prison of Erebus. During the course of the years he served in this role, Yago learned how the mysterious greystone powder and liquid stone within the cavern both worked, and came up with a method of entombing prisoners by half-submerging them in a tub of water and then adding a few grains of greystone powder so that the prisoners were trapped painfully within the stone. The sealed greystone deposit in the Mariana Trench was discovered during the collaboration between Julius and Lachlan Adamson and the oceanographer David Black. When they and Zoe Kissane ventured down to the sealed archway and used sonar to examine what lay past the door, but their readings led them to believe that the seven-square kilometer deposit was a type of pricite basalt. The Three Secret Cities When Jack West Jr and Lily West were confronted by the monks of the Order of the Omega at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Jack noticed that High Brother Ezekiel had a pendant containing a bulb of dark grey powder around his neck, but was unaware of what the substance actually was. When Jack was captured by Yago and transported to Erebus, the Slave King subjected him to his favoured method of imprisonment, explaining the capabilities of greystone powder and its rarity. When Jack and Aloysius Knight later entered Poseidon's tomb in search of the Trident of the Sealords, one of Sunil Malik's men set off the trap system, causing the chamber to begin filling with seawater. Jack recalled a statue of Medusa in the entry tunnel, and realised that its eyes were made of two small "pills" of greystone powder, just as it was with a second statue on the chamber's ceiling, causing him to realise that the entire tomb would be sealed within the substance. Once the water level reached the tunnel statue's greystone powder pills, the substance converted the water to stone, sealing one of Malik's men inside while the other was trapped up to his legs. As Jack and Knight moved to escape through one of the water shafts, the dumbstruck Malik was carried on the rising water towards the second set of greystone pills on the chamber's ceiling. Upon contact with the seawater, it solidified the remaining water into stone, trapping Malik. Jack and Knight narrowly managed to escape from the tomb's water shaft as the water behind them solidified and sealed the entire tomb in stone. As Jack contemplated the punishment for failing the Trial of the Cities, Knight helped him realise that the deposit of greystone powder at Erebus was one of six such deposits around the world, and that they would all be opened and exposed to the oceans, which after solidifying the oceans would begin a domino-effect of drying up all sources of water. At the same time, Sphinx demonstrated the effects of greystone powder to Lily; by adding only a couple of grains of the substance to her glass of water, the whole lot was converted to stone. Luckily, the danger the greystone powder presented was averted with the trial's successful completion at the Altar of the Cosmos, and the greystone deposits at the Underworld, Erebus, the Three Cities and in the Mariana Trench were left sealed. Attributes An old and rare substance, greystone powder was apparently uncovered by the Super-Ancients, who saw its potential in a number of uses. Through its liquid stone counterpart, the greystone powder has been instrument in the Super-Ancients' construction of a number of structures such as their cities' buildings and bridges. In its typical "dry" form, greystone powder is almost indistinguishable from the volcanic stone known as pricite basalt. However, upon contact with water, the greystone powder begins converting it on a molecular level through a exponential lattice phenomenon; for every bond that the greystone molecule makes with a water molecule, it creates a hundred more just like it, allowing it to expand and solidify. The process does not take very long, as it took only a few seconds for the water in Poseidon's tomb to completely solidify. After water has been converted into stone by the substance, the greystone can be altered into the more fluid offshoot known as liquid stone, simply by heating the solidified greystone to a certain degree. Maintaining enough heat will keep it in this form, but upon cooling the stone becomes solid once again. Trivia *The greystone powder is noted by Yago to have had different names to describe the substance over the years, such as: **Gorgon stone **Stone dust **Grey matter **Greystone Category:Object Category:The Three Secret Cities